Microsoft has six shows coming to Xbox, not just Spielberg’s Halo

Microsoft has Netflix in its sights with plans to air shows on its own channel to attract users to Xbox. Steven Spielberg will be creating a Halo TV series, as announced at the Xbox One launch, but there's plenty more coming too.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Xbox users can expect six new shows to hit their consoles via Xbox TV. They will range from sci-fi to comedy with Microsoft's apparently huge budget stretching pretty far and wide.

Sarah Silverman, comedian extraordinaire, has signed up to create her own sketch show for Xbox TV. Seth Green, of Austin Powers and Robot Chicken fame, is going to produce a stop-animation comedy for the channel. Humans is another series to be made, based on a Swedish thriller about human-robot workers - this is due in 2015 after being co-produced with Channel 4. There will also be a show created to arrive with the World Cup, called Every Street United which is about, you guessed it, football.

Then there's Steven Spielberg's Halo series which was first announced at the Xbox One launch. The general focus of the channel will be on gamers, with a plan to entertain those who already own an Xbox and to draw in those who don't. That in mind the plan is to have at least one interactive element to go with each show, including games.

The studio plans to live broadcast the Bonnaroo music festival this July followed by a documentary series from the makers of Searching for Sugar Man. Plans were mentioned about scanning a viewer's face to place them in the crowd of any festival coverage but it's unclear if this will happen. The general show rollout will start this June.